Shorenstein APARC
Stanford University
Encina Hall, Room E301
Stanford, CA 94305-6055

dbfuller@stanford.edu
(650) 736-0685 (voice)
(650) 723-6530 (fax)

Research Interests
Economic prospects for developing countries under globalization and the comparative political economy of East Asia

Doug Fuller has been researching technology and economic policymaking in East Asia for the past ten years. He has spent approximately six years living in Greater China and has conducted field research in Korea, Japan, and Malaysia as well. His broad research interests include the economic prospects for developing countries under globalization and the comparative political economy of East Asia.

Fuller's dissertation research focuses on China's technological development in the IT industry. In sharp contrast to traditional explanations focused on state policy and the building of domestic market institutions for development, he has found that foreign firms are the prime drivers of China's technological progress. China's foreign investment-driven route suggests that the opportunities for developing countries under globalization may be greater than previously thought. Whereas the state and market-based explanations require a high level of performance by domestic institutions, the foreign-driven model requires very little from domestic institutions beyond openness. However, not all foreign firms are alike. The foreign firms driving China's development are members of the ethnic Chinese transnational technological community. As members of this community, they are more prone to embrace a strategy based on extensive utilization and development of China's human resources. Thus, for other countries to avail themselves of this foreign-driven strategy, they too must have an international co-ethnic network of technologists to spur development.

Fuller's future research will focus on the potential scope of this foreign-driven model across nations and across China's other industries. Within China, he will examine other new sectors, such as biotechnology, and mature sectors, such as automobiles. Cross-nationally, he plans to examine those nations with existing expatriate technology communities abroad, such as India, and those countries that have the potential to foster such communities, such as Malaysia. Comparing across policy arenas, he will look at policies for entrepreneurship in addition to policies for technological learning and economic openness.

Fuller has published in several peer-reviewed academic journals, including Industry and Innovation and Journal of Contemporary China. He has received research support from the Institute of International Education's Fulbright Program and the Sloan Foundation. He received his doctorate from the department of political science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in June 2005.

Other affiliations
Massachusetts Institute of Technology